The month of January was named after the Roman goddess Janus who had two faces. Like the goddess, January is the month of the year when we both look back on the previous year that is over as well as ahead to the year coming up. I just posted my favorite releases for 2011 - here is a list of releases that I'm looking forward to in 2012. The Right Now - sophomore release (April 21st) - The Chicago R&B group The Right Now has had a pretty great run since their [...]
You in Iowa City? See you tonight at The Summit !
Photo taken by Tim Bugbee I feel like I've arrived at the party late. While I was familiar with the work of John Fahey and his proteges like Leo Kottke , until recently I didn't really look into the phenomenon that is generally known as " American Primitive ." Musicians I follow closely like Joey Burns of Calexico, and MC Taylor from The Court & Spark and Hiss Golden Messenger, and the guys from [...]
I made a quick run to Iowa City last week- mostly with the intention of picking up the August issue of Little Village Magazine so I could have a hard copy of the review I wrote for it (Rockygrass band Finnders & Youngberg's new album FY5 ). While I was there, I stopped into the Record Collector to see if there was anything worth picking up. Of course, there was. One great aspect about the Record Collector is that they have a pretty extensive used vinyl section that has a lot of 902s college rock in it! Like a [...]
Over the long weekend, I was hoping to get in on some of the sales that were going on- specifically Guitar Center in Cedar Rapids, and the full-weekend 20% sale at Half-Price Books. While I didn't actually get over to Guitar Center, I did hit HPB, but also managed to see David Lowery and Johnny Hickman tape a Java Blend session in Iowa City with my friend Erik , which also resulted in a great trip to The Record Collector. I also visited Moondog Music in Dubuque on Thursday and picked up some "missing titles" and hit a Half [...]
I've been waiting for a good recording of Times New Viking for what seems like ages. This one ticks just about all of the boxes. A good set from the Ohio band and having recently missed them in York, something I seem to be making a habit of at the moment this is a welcome listen. Download Zip File
The 2010 Guided by Voices reunion tour rolls into 2011 without skipping a beat. As GBV singer-leader Robert Pollard has said in interviews, the band keeps getting these festival gigs offered to them and it seems to make sense to play 'em (why not, right? The band's gotta be clearing some decent cash for these shows). GBV played a few shows last weekend - this clip below's from the Iowa City Mission Creek Festival. The band sounds awesome on Buzzards and Dreadful Crows here. But what invariably makes GBV shows so [...]
This Saturday, March 5th brings to the Mill Restaurant in Iowa City former V2 Records singer-songwriter Charlie Mars . Charlie is wrapping up a run of dates that started at the beginning of February of East Coast and Midwest dates in support of his latest album Like A Bird, Like A Plane which came out in 2009. The bio on Mars's site says that Like A Bird, Like A Plane is almost a "new debut." While this album is his 5th release dating back to his 1996 album [...]
In addition to having a pretty cute band name, Fitz and the Tantrums seem to have really taken the scene by storm in their relatively short existence. The story goes that frontman Michael "Fitz" Fitzpatrick rescued a vintage keyboard from someone who needed to leave town quickly. The keyboard was the inspriation that Fitz needed to start writing the keyboard-fueled R&B that is the signature of Fitz and the Tantrums. A chance hearing by Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine gained them a gig opening for his band on tour. Another opportunity [...]
top of the late afternoon to y'all. sadly, i missed last year's okkervil river /roky erickson record, but of course its never too late. anyone listen to it? worth getting into? i assume it is, but one never knows? i think i heard rumblings that said band has a new record coming out? and that their first single may have premiered on pfork? i maybe making shit up. regardless, here they are at the picador in one of my favorite cities, iowa city, on 9.15.07. 1. plus ones 2. lady liberty [...]
Pieta Brown's second songwriter-in-residency called "This Land Is Your Music" at The Mill Restaurant kicked off on Saturday 12/4 right on the heels of a six-day mini-tour of Australia which wrapped up the previous Saturday. I had been looking forward to seeing these two shows. Last year's three consecutive Thursday night shows in November (read my reviews for 11/5/09 , 11/12/09 , 11/19/09 ) were truly magical, intimate shows. Pieta considers The Mill her home venue- she got her start playing The Mill, so she was happy to bring these shows to that stage. [...]
Right on the heels of a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise money to release her new album Wish I Were You on vinyl, St. Louis musician Beth Bombara is setting out to do a quick run through Wisconsin and Iowa to play some shows with her frequent partner-in-musical crime Cassie Morgan . This tour could technically be considered a Cassie Morgan and the Lonely Pine tour (a moniker under which they released Weathered Hands, Weary Eyes in April of this year) and certainly they [...]
Muruch's occasional Mid-West reviewer/photographer Jen "Coble" Hopper was in the crowd for The Academy Is... show on September 5th at The Blue Moose Tap House in Iowa City. You can read her thoughts about the concert along with her photographs below... Last Sunday, September 5th, The Academy Is... detoured off of their summer arena tour with KISS to play an intimate gig at the Blue Moose Tap House in Iowa City. [...]
The last time Margaret Stutt who performs as Pezzettino was in Eastern Iowa was back in January as part of a quick jump through the Midwest on her way to some shows on the East Coast. Since then she's effectively adopted Brooklyn as one of her homes (Milwaukee being the other). Freshly energized from an over-achieved Kickstarter fund raiser for her new record LubDub which is going through the process to create candy-yellow vinyl (in addition to CD and download)- Ms. Pezz has decided to [...]
Last February I reported about former Iowa City band Death Ship s- a show at the Mill and a new EP that he was going to release on iTunes. Titled Maybe Arkansas , it was a 4-track EP of some really great guitar rock. I said that it was, "a flat-out charmer – hook-filled and standing out in my mind as a testament to the great music that comes from the Midwest. These guitar pop songs draw easy and complimentary comparisons to other Midwest greats like The Jayhawks , The Honeydogs and, [...]
I'm really happy about the number of great new releases coming out this fall! One release that I've been waiting on for I think two years, is the new album from Iowa City's own Diplomats of Solid Sound ! I first heard songs that would make up What Goes Around Comes Around ( Record Kicks , October 28) back in August 2008 when they performed at KCCK's Jazz Under the Stars . In fact, I'm pretty sure I remember the title song from that show. In the shows I've seen since then, [...]
Growing up in Bellevue, IA there was a local family band with generations of members called the Sieverding Band. This band- as you might expect- was made up of a bunch of guys with the last name Sieverding. They played the Catholic parish barbeque every year- and still do- and performed the polka mass as well. They are an institution, really. The Kopecky Family Band is a band I hadn't heard of before this week when their PR folks reached out to me. A group of seven from Nashville, they aren't actually all [...]
If you haven't heard of Cheyenne Mize before it is probably because her work tended not to be in the forefront of the bands she was in- at least not until recently. Hailing from Louisville, Cheyenne has been firmly entrenched in the folkie scene there. Supporting bands and artists like Arnett Hollow , Maiden Radio , Ben Sollee , Saredren Wells , Thomas A. Minor and the Picket Line , [...]
In an interview from earlier this year on Pitchfork , author Ryan Dombal describes L.A. band Warpaint as having "desert dust grooves, breathy, Cat Power -style vocals, and slithering guitar work." That seems match what I hear on Warpaint's debut EP Exquisite Corpse (Manimal Vinyl). For an EP, there are an impressive three songs over six minutes! Guitarist/vocalist Emily Kokal said in the interview, "I like progressive rock like King Crimson and Yes along with electronic music, things that don't have standard pop structures. My mom listened [...]
If you're looking for some live music this Memorial Day Weekend, a good way to kick things off would be to catch Madison group Mike Droho & The Compass Rose . Winner of the Project M "Reality" Songwriter Competition hosted by 105.5 FM "Triple M" last year (playbsides favorite Anna Laube is competing this year and is still in the running!), Mike's blend of acoustic pop rock draws easy and frequent comparisons to other guitar-toting singer-songwriters like Brett Dennen and Jason Mraz. Armed with his band The Compass Rose (Ida Pajunen on violin and Anthony [...]
Time to play b-sides
White Folks Get Crunk
Burning World
Waved Rumor
Captain's Dead
Muruch
![Niki & The Dove - The Fox [OFFICIAL VIDEO]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/youtube/l2f6UbMnlq4_130.jpg)
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SBTRKT – Pharaohs (What So Not’s ‘Club ReRub’)
